


how about the possibility of you and i

by buries



Series: [challenge] 100 prompt fills [8]
Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Katherine Pierce, Closure, Established Relationship, F/M, Family Feels, Freedom, Katherine gets her freedom, Mentions of Caroline Forbes - Freeform, Mentions of Klaus Mikaelson - Freeform, Mentions of Nadia Petrova, Mother-Daughter Relationship, OTP Feels, Protective Stefan Salvatore, References to PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26337793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buries/pseuds/buries
Summary: Stefan comforts a worried Katherine as Nadia travels to New Orleans to finally attain her mother's freedom.
Relationships: Katherine Pierce & Stefan Salvatore & Nadia Petrova, Katherine Pierce/Stefan Salvatore, Nadia Petrova & Katherine Pierce, Stefan Salvatore & Nadia Petrova
Series: [challenge] 100 prompt fills [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/904506
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: Focus on Female Characters





	how about the possibility of you and i

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for trace for the 100_situations prompt "argue." this is set post-canon where katherine and stefan remained vampires, nadia appeared, and katherine and stefan worked through their baggage and got together again. most importantly, she gets her freedom. :)
> 
> this is unbeta'd, all mistakes are mine. thanks for reading! ♥

Katherine slams the door dramatically behind her, it almost splintering off its hinges. Really, he’s not surprised. After he’d fixed the bathroom door, she’d broken it again on purpose just so she could ogle him as he worked to fix it.

This time, he knows her slamming and breaking the door to their room isn’t done with any ulterior intentions. She’s really angry at him.

Giving her a moment to herself in their room, he stands awkwardly in the hallway and listens to her bare feet pad angrily along the wooden floor. Her footfalls are almost as sharp as the clacking of her stilettos.

Stefan steels himself before he follows her and opens the door, hearing the hinge at the top break. Another thing to fix on his list, after he fixes this.

Katherine’s in the bathroom, running her fingers angrily through her curly hair. She doesn’t look at him even though she knows he’s there. She’s always been more in tune with him than he’s ever been with himself.

Leaning against the doorframe, he crosses his arms against his chest as he watches her reflection. She keeps her gaze downcast, uncharacteristically avoidant. Softly, he says, "Katherine." Pinching her lips angrily, she shakes her head. "Katherine, you can’t be mad at me."

"I can and I am." She opens one of the drawers roughly and begins to rifle through it. He’d placed all her hair things in there so she could find them easily. She seems to have no idea how to organise herself now that she isn’t running for five hundred years. Stefan doesn’t mind giving her order when her life has been chaos for so long.

He sighs. With his tone even, he says, "Okay, fine. You can be mad at me. But you have to understand I didn’t do anything maliciously."

"No?" Katherine’s head shoots up as she glares at him in the mirror. Even now, after all these years, he finds that glare to be absolutely intimidating. He remains leaning against the doorframe, not wanting to appear like he’s capable of being huffed and puffed and blown down. Her voice is taught when she says, "You told Nadia that she should go to _New Orleans_ , Stefan."

Glancing down for a moment, he runs his tongue along his bottom lip and tries to weigh his words before they come out of his mouth. Unlike her, he’s still not skilled at that. "Technically, she wanted to go herself."

Katherine grips the edge of the vanity and cracks it.

"Katherine," he says, trying again. She shakes her head and grits her teeth, her entire body tensing. "Katherine, look… Nadia’s a big girl. She’s over five hundred years old." He walks into the bathroom and approaches her slowly, much like a predator not wanting to spook his prey, but she’s not prey. She hasn’t been for a long, long time.

Placing his hands on her shoulders, he feels her tense beneath his fingers. Not giving up, he curls them around the bone to try and relax her. "I think if anyone can look after themselves in New Orleans, it’s a Petrova."

Keeping her head bowed, she shakes her head. "She’s still a _Petrova_ , Stefan," she says it like it’s something disgusting. He instantly doesn’t agree, shaking his head.

"A capable one, just like you."

With her head still bowed, she grips the vanity harder and he witnesses it begin to splinter, the cracks slowly reaching out towards the edge of the sink. 

"You can stop running, you know."

Quietly, she mutters angrily, "I’m not running."

"You are," he says. He steps into her and presses his chest to her back. She seems to stiffen and then relax, unable to really help herself. His hands slide down her arms and loop around her stomach, holding her to him in case she thinks to slip away again. "You don’t have to run with me anymore, you know."

Katherine inhales deeply and lets it out, the tension in her body slowly dissipating with it. Resting his chin on her shoulder, he hugs her to him tightly. She lets him.

"Klaus has bigger problems," he says quietly. He looks at her jaw, seeing it tense. "I hear he has a werewolf infestation."

She chuckles and shakes her head, lips tensing as she looks up at the mirror to see him looking at her. He smiles at her and impulsively kisses the side of her neck.

"And as much as a Petrova is worth a lot of fanfare… You know Nadia’s smart, Katherine. She takes after you."

Biting her bottom lip, she places her hands on top of his. She leans into him slightly, not quite letting herself fully embrace letting him look after her. He figures he’ll give her some more time to do that. They have all of eternity for her to stop thinking she’s alone.

"And she knows what she’s doing. Being able to live a peaceful life with you is something she wants." Stefan cracks a smile. "It’s something I want, too."

Her hands rub the back of his arms. It’s something he’s picked up as being a sign of anxiety. It’s something he’s rarely seen her do, not even when he had been watching her studiously to spy a crack in her armour all those years ago. 

"Nadia’s going to be okay," he says quietly and earnestly. "Marcel’s a pretty decent guy, and Elijah’s there."

Katherine shakes her head and lets out a tired sigh. "I don’t trust Elijah to not turn on her, Stefan. History repeats itself."

"Not today," he says, letting his chin rest comfortably on her shoulder. "Not this time. Besides, if Klaus wants Hope to have a chance at Caroline’s school, he’s going to have to meet her terms."

She lets out an amused noise. "I still can’t believe you roped _Caroline Forbes_ into helping me."

He cracks a smile. "I told you that asking for help was nothing to be ashamed of. Look at where it’s gotten you."

"I still don’t know…" she says, shaking her head uncertainly. He knows that she’s fine with it. It’d taken a lot of convincing and a lot of hoops Caroline patiently leapt through for Katherine to even consider letting Caroline sit at their dinner table and even discuss New Orleans and her freedom.

He smiles and happily recites, "You’re a five-hundred-year-old vampire and Traveler witch who has a daughter who is also a five-hundred-year-old vampire and Traveler witch and you have knowledge that would be pretty useful for someone like Hope. You’re also the smartest, most intelligent woman I know. And you have Kol Mikaelson _and_ Elijah Mikaelson in your pocket, and Vincent Griffith actually seems to like you." He lets out a quiet and amused laugh. "Do you need me to go on?"

Katherine smiles at him, flushing slightly. "I won’t stop you… But you’ve made your point."

"You’re personable, Katherine. And it’s worked." She looks down and he squeezes her stomach, urging her to look up at him. "Let it pay off. Let Nadia do this for you."

Looking up at him, she presses her lips together and then nods. She admits quietly, "I don’t want to get my hopes up."

"That’s okay, because my hopes are up." He loosens his arms as she turns around to face him, leaning her back against the counter. He doesn’t step back, refusing to give her space. Planting his hands on the vanity, he smiles up at her. "Then we can finally go to New Orleans and get drunk along Bourbon Street _and_ be very loud outside of Klaus’ home that he stays up all night."

Katherine lets herself smile. Her fingers fiddle with the hem of his shirt. "I do like the sound of that."


End file.
